Yellow catfish is a high-quality aquaculture species worth promoting

Yellow catfish, also known as jiangsang, gayazi, and angsi fish, has a yellow-green back, yellow flanks with intermittent black patches, a naked scaleless body, and an elongated shape. It is distributed in natural waters across most regions of China.

Yellow catfish is a warm-water bottom-dwelling fish that prefers to inhabit still or slow-flowing waters. Its survival temperature is 0°C-38°C, it has extremely strong adaptability, and it has considerable aquaculture potential, so it can be promoted for farming in most inland waters nationwide.

Yellow catfish has tender flesh and a delicious taste. It not only has nourishing effects, but also certain medicinal value. It is highly favored by consumers and has long been regarded as a premium fish. Its adult individuals weigh around 250 grams, which is very suitable for consumption by a family of three in China today. At the same time, yellow catfish also has huge market potential in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other countries, making it an excellent variety for earning foreign exchange through exports.

The farming of market-size yellow catfish mainly uses the following three methods:

1. Mainly farming yellow catfish by feeding fresh small fish and shrimp. Ponds of 2-5 mu are suitable, with an average water depth of 1.8 m. The pond water transparency should be controlled at 20-30 cm. Generally, wild fry collected from nature are stocked, with a size of over 15 grams per fish. If artificially bred fry are stocked, the size is generally 5-8 cm. Then conventionally polyculture some silver carp, bighead carp, grass carp, crucian carp, etc. The stocking density is suitably 500 fish per mu. About 50-250 kg of yellow catfish can be harvested per mu.

2. Mainly farming yellow catfish by feeding frozen marine fish and fresh small freshwater fish and shrimp. The requirements for ponds and stocking density are similar to those for feeding fresh small fish and shrimp. Set up a feeding point of about 5 square meters at the downwind end of the pond, control the pond water transparency at 20-30 cm, and ensure the dissolved oxygen content of the pond water is above 3 mg/L. About 50-400 kg of yellow catfish can be harvested per mu.

3. Polyculture of yellow catfish with pond-cultured fish. The stocking size is required to be over 10 cm, with 200-300 fish stocked per mu. The yield of yellow catfish can reach 50-150 kg per mu.

The Yin family large-mouth catfish breeding farm in Honghu City, Hubei Province, has accumulated rich experience in artificially breeding and farming yellow catfish, and currently has the capacity for large-scale production of yellow catfish fry and fingerlings.